Guide to Self-Publishing Your E-Book on Kindle
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A Book for Every Soul
It's been said that everybody has a novel somewhere inside them, waiting to come out. Unfortunately, publisher's aren't interested in the inner literature of most of the world's population. Authors have been struggling to gain recognition for centuries; for every big name author you hear about, there are 2,000 other people falling into that guy's shadow.
Self-publishing used to be sort of a last resort measure – You can't get your book published, nobody wants to read it, okay just self publish instead then. In the literary world, self-published authors were the kids that never got invited to the party.
But oh, the times they are a-changin'!
Self publishing is becoming more and more of a common practice these days thanks to digital publishing platforms like Kindle and others.
It costs money to put a book into print. In an e-book, there's no paper, no glue, no binding, just the words in their purest form. We've been seeing all kinds of writers coming out of the woodwork in the past year or so, from instant success stories like Amanda Hocking to lesser known authors like Dexter Holland.
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How to Self-Publish a Novel on Kindle
I mentioned Kindle a second ago. Kindle is a digital reading device that's only for reading books (or newspapers, magazines, what have you), unlike the iPad for example which can basically handle all the functions as a normal computer.
Amazon.com makes it incredibly easy to self-publish your books. It's completely free and there are no strings attached. Your books go up on the Amazon marketplace and you earn a royalty on every purchase.
The Steps to Self Publishing Your E-Book on Kindle
So you have a novel that you want to get published? Great! You can go through the big name guys like Random House, but remember, most book agents receive hundreds of books each day to peruse, and while it's not impossible to get a book deal with one of those publishing houses it's still pretty darn difficult.
Alternatively, you can publish your novel on Kindle. Here are the steps to self-publishing on Kindle.
Step 1: Write!
Write a book! Done? Okay great let's go to step 2.
Step 2: Make an Account at Amazon
Create an Amazon.com account. Simply go to Amazon.com and look for the sign-up button at the top of the screen. It's free and it takes about 2 minutes.
Step 3: Sign Into KDP Dashboard
Go to https://kdp.amazon.com/. This is the main page for the Kindle Direct Publishing facet of Amazon. On the right side of the screen you'll see an option that says “Sign in with your Amazon account.”
If you haven't made an Amazon account yet, you can go ahead and create one here as well.
Still with me? Great! Let's move on to the actual publishing portion of this Kindle self-publishing guide!
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Step 4: Adding a New Title
Once inside Kindle Direct Publishing, you'll see this page:
This is your Kindle Direct Publishing dashboard, and it's here that you'll be able to manage all of your books once they're published. About halfway down the screen there's a yellow button that says “Add New Title.” Isn't this exciting?
Go ahead and click that and wait for the next screen to show up.
Step 5: Title and Description
The first step in actually publishing your book is to fill out the basic information. Right here you can put in your book title as well as the description.
The description has a character limit of 4,000 characters, and while you don't have to use them all it's good to have a lengthy enough description of the book to entice visitors to purchase it. You want to really sell your novel here.
If your book is part of a series, click the check box there and name the series. If your book has been through several editions, indicate the current edition right below that. Pretty self explanatory. Easy enough so far?
Finally, below that you have a button to “Add Contributors.”
If you're the author, just enter your name and choose “author” from the drop down box. This doesn't have to be your real name! Many authors prefer to publish their novels under a pen name or pseudonym. I use several different pen names myself to get some different varieties of material out there.
Step 6: Publishing Rights and Category
Next we have four quick fields for Language, Publisher, Publication Date, and ISBN.
This is ONLY if your book has previously been published in print. “English” is the default selection for the language, which you probably won't need to change, and if this is your first time self-publishing an e-book you probably won't need to touch the other fields. Just leave them blank.
Below that you need to verify your publishing rights. If you've written the e-book yourself, choose the second option - “This is not a public domain work.”
PLEASE do not plagiarize content or steal information, or engage in any of that nefarious haberdashery!! I love Kindle and I want it to be free from spammers like you. I know a great site where you can post up your plagiarized work.
Below the publishing rights is the section for Categories and keywords.
There are a lot of categories. If your book is a novel you'll find everything you need under the FICTION parent category. You are allowed to choose 2 categories only, so make sure they appropriately match your book. If your self-published novel is a science fiction thriller, you might for example choose FICTION > Thrillers and FICTION > Science Fiction > Adventure. Non-fiction e-books fall under all the other categories.
Below that is a field to enter in up to 7 keywords to help people find your self-published Kindle book. I recommend using all 7. You're an author so it shouldn't be hard to come up with that many!
Some example keywords might be, using the same hypothetical science fiction thriller: science fiction, thriller novel, horror novel, horror sci-fi, full length thriller, futuristic thriller, space adventure.
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Step 7: Your Kindle Book Cover
Now, you do not HAVE to use a book cover for your self-published Kindle novel, but I highly recommend it. If you want to know why, go to Amazon and search something like “science fiction kindle.” There are THOUSANDS of results.
Imagine you're browsing through that list to find something to read on your trip. Would you even look twice at a book with no cover? I wouldn't, I'll be honest.
You can hire someone to make a Kindle book cover for you, or you can use a program like Adobe Photoshop to design your own. It's up to you. Don't rip off anybody else's cover, but if you're stuck for an idea you can use some other published books for inspiration. As Einstein said, “Genius is knowing how to hide your sources.” So, yeah.
Step 8: Upload Your Book!
This is the best part! Click the “Browse” button and search for your book on your computer. Kindle likes uploads in .doc (no need to change it to PDF or anything like that.) You can find a whole list of formatting rules if you click the link that says “Help With Formatting.”
In a nutshell, use a normal font like Times New Roman, and place a manual page break in between chapters. Kindle doesn't do well with bullet points, so leave them out.
That's it!
The next page will bring up your pricing options, but since this is getting long already I'm going to put that in a different hub. Check back for the link regularly, or follow my hubpages profile to see when I publish it.
Remember: Anybody can self-publish an e-book on Kindle, but the true value in your book will lie in the writing itself. Keep writing, keep going, and never give up!
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Very informative. Thank you for sharing.
Very cool informative hub! Thank you for sharing all of the information!
David
Thanks for reading David and Casey!
arusho: Yeah, her story is really incredible. Apparently she wrote something like 17 books over 9 years that never got published, then one day decided to just put one on Kindle herself because she needed money. It sold 150,000 copies in 6 months
This is great info! This gives me hope to publish that story inside that has been dying to come out. Who knows?
Thanks very much for sharing!
Great info and this ole gal swears by this Kindle way of reading. It has opened the doors for many not for just publishing but for vision impared folks. My Kindle has READ to me 82 books that my eyes would have not---the audio is not the best but HEY!
p.s. WELCOME TO hp
Thanks for commenting Jill! Sometimes all you have to do is sit down and write it!
Thanks for the kind words Ginn, I like hubpages quite a bit so far.
Maximizer,
That was an awesome read. Where were you when I was trying to figure it all out in the beginning? lol
Voted Up and more!
Thanks so much for this incredibly helpful and informative hub on self-publishing. Very timely hub as I was just asking someone how to go about it. I'm bookmarking this to help me when I publish. Hit many buttons :-)
Thanks for publishing this useful hub! I am in the process of publishing my first Kindle and your information is coming just at the right time! You have inspired me!
great info. I have a mystery series on hub pages. I want to publish it. Do I just take it from my hub and put into word?
I know that more people are doing this now--you make it look pretty easy!
Ah--interesting. I've been thinking about this for a while, although I'm looking for a publishing option that makes the book available across all e-reader platforms...
However, this is the nuts and bolts at a glance, and will no doubt prove useful no matter the publishing method used.
Voted up, interesting and useful.
Great article. I'm bookmarking this one.
NA lot of people are doing this some in fact made this their full time job. Very useful guide
Wow thanks for taking the time to comment everybody!
@Minnetonka: Yes, just copy and paste everything to MS Word. Incidentally, when you write your hubs, do you just write directly onto the site? I keep a document for everything I write online, no matter how large or small.
@Sylvia13: Good luck!
Everybody else, thanks again for reading!
Yes, I just write directly on the hubs. Probably a really good idea that your putting all your hubs on a document. Are you saying that you automatically copy and paste each hub to word? Pretty sure that's what you mean :-)
What I mean is that I organize the hub and write everything out in Word first, and then paste into the hub when I'm ready to publish. I'm not saying that's what everybody should do, it just makes me feel safer in case the internet goes out and I lose my work.
Ok, Gotcha and thanks so much for your time on this. You are smart to do this and I think Most people don't :-0
I published my first book on Kindle. I thought it was a decent read and my family said it was good, but what are they going to tell me. This is probably the best way to publish for people without the funds to get a publisher. I sent a cover letter to an agent and he was so rude, and that was just a cover letter. I would hate to see what he said about my book. I was afraid to try again. But with Kindle, I can get feedback and maybe put up my next one when I finish it.
Congratulations on your publication, Kitt. Kindle really is a great way to self-publish if you can't go through the normal routes.
Thanks for this very valuable information! I shared it with my Twitter followers! Thanks for SHARING!
Hi, this is bookmarked very quickly! lol! I am in the process of writing my first ebook. I do have a question, what happens if you want to publish on English Amazon as well as American? I am English and coming from good ol' Blighty! I wondered how that works? does Amazon automatically do it for me? or do I have to sign up twice? obviously I am on US Amazon, but what about anywhere else? thanks!
This was awesome and very helpful. It is my dream to write at least one novel in my lifetime, so this might come in handy in the future. Thanks for the imformative post!
Nell - Once you get to the second part of the publishing process(Rights & Pricing) you can specify the book's availability for different countries. If you don't change anything it will automatically go up on US, UK, Denmark, France, Spain, and Italy.
Rico - Go for it! You only live once!
I've researched how to self-publish before (I had an e-book once upon a time that I wanted to publish, but it's not worth it anymore). However, I have never looked into doing so for the Kindle!
Great work Maximizer! Thanks for SHARING!
I have already published an e-book and is distributed in amazon (http://www.amazon.com/MBA-TERMS-and-GLOSSARY-ebook It is doing quite well. It is really easy to publish an e-book but it is quite difficult to raise sales, as up to now, the majority of readers prefer the traditional product, the book. However, I do believe that e-books are the future. Thanks for SHARING.
Now this is a great resource for many writers :) thank you for sharing such awesome help.
I am looking forward to publishing a book this year. I have bookmarked this valuable information for the future. Thanks so much for SHARING.
Thanks!
Good information for writers! Thank your for SHARING. :)
I absolutely love this article and find the timing for this article was perfect for me! I am working on several e-books currently, on a vast array of topics, and wasn't sure where to go with self-publishing for popular formats such as the Kindle.
I appreciate the effort you have put into the detail of the Hub. The step-by-step process explanation is wonderful and does a fantastic job at explaining the process to everyone who is still unfamiliar with the technology used to accomplish publishing works in the electronic format.
Voted Up, +Useful +Interesting! Thanks! Shared with followers, fb, and on my WordPress site with credit given!
Seems a fairly simple process, the way you put it. I'll have to try it out when the time comes. Thanks for SHARING.
Amazon offers a couple of 99-cent books on this topic as well. One of them is free if you have a Prime membership. Cheers.
This is really very helpful for anyone who has had just about enough from the traditional publishers.
I am going to try and make best use of it someday.
Thanks a lot
Sharing and Caring.
Great this is a Good Instructional Hub. Thanks.
Great hub. I've often wondered about this option. Now I have something to think about!
Welcome to HubPages - I appreciate these step by step directions - it shows me how easy self publishing can be. Now I just need to go write my great novel!
Voted up and "useful". Thanks for sharing it!!
What a fantastic Hub! Voted up, interesting, useful, and awesome. Great step-by-step instructions. My favorite line: "nfortunately, publisher's aren't interested in the inner literature of most of the world's population." So true! But it's wonderful that self-publishing is becoming less and less stigmatized. My first (and only, so far) novel was self-published through CreateSpace, Amazon's book/music/film self-publishing platform. Not expensive, and worked great! Now if I could only sell some . . . haha. Anyway, thanks for this great Hub! And thanks for SHARING.
Really useful hub thanks!
I'm still at step 1 but will be publishing on kindle when I'm done writing and this has helped a lot :)
~Kaz x
Excellent step-by-step guide for anyone looking into self-publishing on Amazon's Kindle. Thank you for an in-depth information :-)
Good, informative hub. I'll probably be trying the self-publishing option one day. This year, maybe, when I finish with my book. That's a good option!
And I've met some agents and they are all telling how many books they get all the time. No wonder, they don't have time to look through all of them.
I have a few craft books on Kindle and on Barnes and Noble Nook. I do fairly well closing in on over $1000 a month and hopefully more by the end of the year. I would like to expand to recipes and non-fiction someday. You shared some great tips for those wanting to get started....
I'm thinking to self publish ebook. Thanks for sharing your expertise. I'm going to bookmark this hub.
This is really great ...Thanks maximizer for the nice post
Maximizer, I wanted to let you know that I publish a hub each week that lists my favorite hubs I have read during the week, and this hub is on it. Congrats!
Your hub has inspired me to write an ebook, well someday...
Excellent tutorial! I've got a book going through the Create Space process now because I need hard copies of it for a book signing, but I wanted to do a Kindle version,too. I've been dreading the learning curve, but after reading your systematic description, I feel comfortable I can do it. I've bookmarked your page to walk me through the process and shared this all over the Internet. KUDOS!
This is fantastic. Thank you. I hope to self-publish my first novel soon, and I want to do it on Kindle.
Thanks for the info, especially the screen shots. An eBook is definitely on my "to do" list. The marketing and promotion seems a bit daunting though.
WOW, thanks for all the comments guys! I need to log in daily to reply to everyone. I'll just say thanks to everybody for reading!
Millionaire tips: thank you! I'm honored to be included in your list. I'll be sure to check it out and share it with all of my friends.
Thanks Maximizer... this is in my not-too-distant trajectory. Bookmarked and I'll be back. :-)
Thank you for this great information. I appreciate you walking us through the process. Welcome to the HubPages Community.
Thanks for reading James and Toolong...glad you found it helpful
Maximizer! Excellent information! I always wondered in regards to the real profits behind e-publishing! Guess is like everything, if we treat it like a business, it is!
SHARING back!
Wow! What an in-depth guide for self publishing! I am not yet finished writing my novel because I spend all my time here on HubPages! Maybe someday! I will bookmark for future use. Voted up and SHARING!
JSMatthew~
Great info! You made it sound so easy. Bookmarking for future use. Thanks!
Fantastic hub. Definitely bookmarking this for future reference. I'll also be passing on this link to the members of my writing group.
I really appreciate the screen shots! I tend to have trouble following solely written descriptions of what I'm suppose to be doing. Also love the content! I think it would be fun to start publishing my own stuff. thank you for sharing!!
Incredible hub. It’s been a struggle to figure out how to go about what seems to be such a daunting endeavor. A fantastic job at putting things in proper perspective. I will try this process. I want to try kindle.
Congrats! Up and Socially SHARING.
So far so good, but remember that at this stage you're just sitting at your lemonade stall with a thousand others alongside you. You want to sell, you're going to have to stand up and yell "Hey, great book here!" Go to suitable events and hand out flyers, put out ads, send a "Local Author" press release to your local paper and radio station, stuff like that.
If you publish it, they will come... but not very fast.
Thanks to everybody for coming by and reading and SHARING!!
@Runesmith- You're absolutely right! The Kindle market is saturated right now with both amateur novels and self published how-to guides, many of which are amazing but get lost in the crowd in minutes. Publishing is just the first step; you have to market yourself as an author and get the word out there.
I recommend using review trades to get some reviews up on Amazon and other blogs. Many authors are willing to share a free copy of their book to get a review, and are more than willing to return the favor.
Wonderful instructions. You make it all seem so easy to accompliish. Up, useful and bookmarked.
Goodness, how many times am I going to come back to this hub? I just wanted to say congratulations on your well-deserved HubNugget nomination!
First, Congratulations on your nomination. Second, thank you for sharing this excellent information. I have a few books I have been working on but have not felt were books a publisher would buy for various reasons. By self-publishing, I can get them out to the audience for Kindle and see how it goes. I have heard you sell them the rights for 90 days, but that is a great test period and anything can wait 3 months. If they do well, you always have the option of taking them to print after. I love that creativity has become something we can do freely and get the word out about others talents now thanks to technology! Again, thank you for great tips. Third, I had to laugh because as much as I wanted to float by your "great site" reference, curiosity finally got to me and I caved and clicked. TOO FUNNY. I mean seriously, I have been hearing a lot about them lately and that just made me LOL!
Welcome to hubpages max and congratulations on your hubnuggets nomination. You'll discover that honor is sure to launch you into the community with lots of positive energy.
Thanks for this very clear and compelling tutorial. I believe in meaningful coincidences and since I've been seriously contemplating publishing on kindle and I have also just returned from an inspiring trip to Jaco CR I'm bookmarking this one! Cheers.
This is wonderful stuff. I love it when someone goes inside and spies for me on what I need to do. I have a book I want to Kindle publish, when I finish it *sighs* and now I know EXACTLY where to go to make sure I have all the info. It's like filling in a government form, such a hass, when all you want to do is write. Thanks for this extremely useful hub.
Almost about to publish an ebook so this came just at the right time!!! Wheee..thanks so much for being my angel today! :)
Congratulations on your Hubnuggets nomination. TO read and vote, read this http://redelf.hubpages.com/hub/Happy-HubNuggets-Va
Great step by step, I voted up.
Thank you all for reading!!
Eyes, you have the right idea! With the right promotion, you can get a lot of buzz going for your Kindle book before investing in getting it printed.
Green Lotus, thank you! Good luck on your book, I hope it turns out splendid! What brought you down to the tropics? Jaco is great, but if you ever want to make a second visit I would highly recommend Manuel Antonio. The beach is just breathtaking.
Eliza, just get all the writing done first and don't even think about where you'll publish it until you're done. With a good story, you'll have no trouble finding an audience. Just keep at it! A bit of writing everyday goes a long way!
Ripplemaker, glad I could help! As far as this nomination is concerned, it's a real honor to be included with those other fine hubs. Thanks for bringing this to my attention!
Although I don't have anything that is ready to publish as an ebook, I have some things in the works. I really appreciate this step by step guide and will be bookmarking it for future use. Thanks so much! Congrats on your Hubnugget nomination and welcome to Hubpages!
I published my ebook first on Smashwords. Then I published it on Amazon. Very easy directions to follow. I highly recommend both.
Hi Maximizer,
Welcome to Hub Pages and thanks for sharing this overview and easy step by step directions to self-publishing an e-book on Kindle.
I'm not ready to publish one yet but am considering doing so in the future so I'm bookmarking this hub.
Voted up across the board except for funny.
Thank you for a wonderfully informative, concise, clear tutorial! Highly motivational as well!
I recently put my first ebook on amazon. I found that the cover is very important and that I need to work on mine. You can see what I put up at:
http://www.amazon.com/Prepare-Paradise-More-Hawaii
Also, deciding how much to charge is another hubworth.
We learn from doing, so get going! Great hub maximizer.
Very useful information, as I am thinking of writing a e-book thanks for sharing
This sounds great. Thanks for sharing. voted up.
wow... it will be another nice source of income
Great content. Very informative and inspiring!
Inspiring site, so let us all do an -book Kindle!
Very good images...I was just at Amazon today, putting one of my books on there...so the images looked so familiar...well done.
Very easy guide. I like it.
Thanks for reading everybody. I'm surprised to see this hub is still going strong!
Thanks for the info - I hope to be able to write e-books soon..
silly andrewmaximizer :) surprised its still going strong???? HubPages was my first choice for online writing...although as you know I have tried other platforms/gag/but HP is just the best
that said...I want to do an ebook and your words of advice are coming on the heels of having my words stolen and put up on "I know a great site" place
I think I have to unpublish my favs here though dont I? thats a sad thought...
and like cardeleean I want to say congrats well deserved CONGRATS for your hubnuggets nomination :)
An excellent share.I will have no problems uploading my eBooks using the guide.
arusho Level 4 Commenter 4 months ago
That's such a cool option, I might want to try that someday. I just checked out Amanda Hocking's books, and I love the young adult, paranormal, stories...I've never heard of her before, but that's great if she got her start writing ebooks. I have a Nook Simple touch that I love, maybe I can write an ebook for Nook. Great hub!